The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1887-12-16
TALMAGES SERMON.
4 Pertinent Inquiry: ''Is Thins
Heart RightP
A Sacramental Discourse, Showing tho
Necessity Of Keeping the Heart Right
by tho Cultivation Of . For.
giving Spirit.

by tho Cultivation of . For
giving Spirit.
Upon a recent sacramental occasion at
Brooklyn Tabernacle, Rev. T. Dewitt
Talmage took for his subject the "Saluta-
tion from the, Chariot" his text being:
Is thine he art right:-n Kings, K. IS.
With mettled horses ut full speed, for he
was celebrated for fast driving, Jehu, the
warrior and king, returns from battle.
But seeing Jehonidab, an acquaintance,
by the wayside, he shouts. "Whoa! whoa!"
to the lathered span. Then leaning over
to Jehonidab, Jehu salutes him in the
words of the text-wOrds not mora APP
propriate for that hour and place than for
this hour and placs:
Is thine heart right!
should like to hear Of your physical
health. Well myself. like to have everv-
body else we'll, and so might ask, SIS
your eyesight right, your hearing right,
your nerves right. your lungs right, your
entire body right? But am busy to-day
taking diagnosis OF the more impor tant
spiritual conditions.
l should like to hear of your financial
welfare. l want every body to have
plenty of money, ample apparel, large
storehouse and comfortable residence;
and might ask: SIS your business right,
your ince me rightyour worldly surround
ings rightw But what are these financial
questions compared with the inquiry as to
whether you have been able to pay your
debts to God; as to whether you are in.
sured for eternity; as to whether you are
running yourself by the long credit system
of the soul? have known men to have
no more than one loaf of bread at time
and vet to own a government bond Of
Heaven worth more than the whole
material universe.
The question ask you to- day is not in
regard to your habits. make no inquiry
about your integrity. or your chastity, or
your sobriety. l do not mean to stand on
the outside of the gate and ring the bell,
but coming up the steps open the door
and come to the private apartment of the
soul; and with the earnestness of a
man that must give an account for this
days work cry out: ooh, man, oh, wOm-
an immortal, is thine heart right:"
1 will not insult you by an argument to
prove that we are by nature all wrong. If
there be factory explosion, and the
smoke stack lie upset, and the wheels be
broken in two, and the engine unjointed,
and the ponderous bars be- twisted, and a
man should look in and say that nothing
was the matter. you would pronounce him
fool. Well, it needs no acumen to dis
cover that our nature is all atwist, and
askew, and unjointed. The thing doesn't
work right. The biggest trouble We have
in the world IL with our souls.
Men sometimes say that though their
lives may not be lust right, their heart is
ali right. Impossible! A farmer never
puts the poorest apples on top of his bar
rel; nor does the merchant place the
meanest goods in his show window. The
best part of us is our outward life. I do
not stopto discuss whether we all fell in
Adam, for we have been our own Adam,
and have al eaten of the Forbid IN fruit,
and have been turned out of the paradise
of holiness and peace; and though the
flaming sword that stood at the gate to
keep us ont has changed position and
comes behind to drive US in, we will not
go.
The Bible account Of US is not exagger.
ated when it says that we are poor,
and wretched, and miserable, and blind,
md naked. Poor: the wretch that stands
shivering on our doorstep on a cold day
is not so much in need of bread ~ we are
of spiritual help. Blind: why, the man
whose eyes persisted in the powder blast,
and who for these ten years has gone feel
ing his way from street to street, is not in
such utter darkness as we. Naked: why
there is no one rag of holiness left to hide
the shame of our sin. Sick: why, the lep.
rosy has eaten into the head. and the
heart, and the hands, and the feet; and
the marasmus of an everlasting vast.
ing away has already seized on some
of us.
But the meanest thing for man to do
is to discourse about an evil without point.
ing a way to have it remedied. speak
of the thirst of your hot tongue only that
] may show you the living stream that
drops crystalline and sparkling from the
Rock Of Ages, and pours a river Of glad.
ness at your feet. Ii show YOU the
rents in your coat it is only because
the door of Gods wardrobe now
swings open, and here is a robe, white
with the fleece Of the Lamb of God, and
OF cut and make that an angel would
not be ashamed to wear. IL I snatch from
yon the black, mouldy bread that you are
muncbing, it is only to give you the bread
made ont of the finest wheat that grows
on the celestial hills, and baked in the
fires of the cross, and one crumb Of which
would be enough to make all Heaven a
banquet. Hear it, one and all, aud tell it
to your friends when you go home, that
the Lord Jesus Christ can make the heart
right.
First we need repenting heart If for
the last ten, twenty or forty years of life
we have been going on in the wrong way,
it is time that we turned around and
started in the opposite direction. If we
offend our friends we are glad to apollo.
piz,. God is our best friend, and yet how
many of us have never apologize ed for the
wrongs we have done Him!
There is nothing taat we so much need
10 get rid of rs sin. 1t is a horrible black
1t polluted Eden. 1t killed
Christ. 1t has blasted the world. Men
keep dogs in kennels, and rabbits in
warren, aud cattle in pen. What man
that would be who would shut them
up in his parlor. But this foul dog
Of sin, and these herds Of transgres.
sion. we have entertained for many long
year in our heart, which should be tho
brightest room in oil our nat ure.
Out with the vile herd! Begone, ye be.
foulers of an immortal nature! Turn out
the beasts and let Christ come in!
A heather came to an early Christian
who had the reputation Of curing diseases.
The Christian said: ''You must have all
your idols destroyed" The heather gave
to the Christian the key to his house, that
he might go in and destroy the Idols. He
battered to pieces all he saw, but still tine
man did not get we'll. The Christian said
to him: There must be some idol in
your house not yet destroyed" The
heather confessed that there was one
idol of beaten gold that he could not bear
to give up. After awhile, when that
was DESTROYED, in answer to the PRAYER